Cabinet Painting (1) - The Mandalorian (and the process of "hate-finishing" a piece)

 Over my time collecting in this hobby, one love I've really had has been Garage Kits. I've collected some models kits, some figure kits by companies like Andrea Miniatures or AK Interactive. Lots of little one off 28mm figures that I've bought solely to paint as what I've referred to as "cabinet pieces." Nothing with gaming intent just stuff to paint and look neat in a display cabinet. 

This is one such piece.

I was in a manic mood yesterday and ended up spending quite a bit of time cleaning and organizing my hobby dungeon. I've run out of shelf space to store unfinished kits and such and now have some piles of boxes accumulating "near" the shelves. I bought some more storage tubs but had to make a decision to move another shelf to a large storage tote. After a lot of deliberation I decided it was time to box up all the plastic Bandai kits as well as a shelf or so of figure kits. I'm not sure why but it felt a little heartbreaking and a bit like a failure on my part. I think a lot of hardcore hobbyists may be able to relate. We buy these kits with good intention to paint them. As they accumulate dust and sit unopened it feels a bit like a wasted opportunity. So as I took each kit, wrote down what it was, and sent it to the bin I kept thinking "Oh! I can't bin this, I need to paint it." Then the rational part of me goes "then just take it out of the bin when you want to paint it you idiot." Still it's had me in a weird mood. 

Now on to the awkward genesis of this piece itself. 

This was a bust purchased probably some time around the first season of the Mandalorian from Blackheart Models at Wonderfest. Like all of my purchases I fully intended to paint it. I had just come hot off the heels of my Hannibal bust (from the hit TV show, Hannibal) and was itching to dive into another kit. I broke out this wonderful sculpt. I think it was maybe 3 parts? I said, this will be cake, have it done in a couple of days. 

Here is a photo from August of 2022

There he is in the background. Another from September of that year

Looming. Watching. Judging. One last one to sell the point, this ones from February of '23

So he sat, almost finished for almost 3 full years. So what happened? Well I'm not thrilled with it. First of all I set the expectation way to high. I really pride myself in part on the quickness I can get through stuff when motivated. My Award-winning Dr. Doom bust was painted the week of the show it medaled at. All this to say when I set a lofty goal and then stall out it kills steam. The first issue was that I struggled hard with the metal on a surface that big. I used AK Gunmetal as I always do and even after a dozen coats it still seemed streaky to me. The second problem was Grogu's skin. I started with the color I used for the kruleboyz and it just didn't want to cover over black. So nothing was quite working how I thought it would. I had been using the base as a handle of sorts so I didn't want to paint it yet so it just didn't feel like any progress was being made after a night of painting so I let it sit. 

Last night I had Scott over for some board games and made a joke about how it isn't finished yet in the context of all that organizing and realized I should probably just finish the thing. Applying a similar "quantity has a quality of it's own" rational to the bigger stuff is sort of a waste to me because the whole point is to look "pretty" but at some point something needs to give. 

The base was a struggle but I chose to trust that process and after going to bed and looking again this morning I'm happy with it. Over a black base I used a blister pack sponge to mottle on Vallejo Tan Earth, Beige brown, and then Iraqi sand. I thinned out some Vallejo grey blue to do the rune looking bits. 

I'm calling it done for now to move on to something else and clear off the desk. The next cabinet piece is partially primed and will see some paint this week maybe. Eagle eyed readers can probably see it in some of the other photos I've posted. 

Flintcon 2020

Each year in Flint Michigan, a friend of ours runs a nice little convention called FlintCon. Its a pretty short drive, there's usually a decent turn out for the flea market and the games are usually pretty good. I'm very much so a "convention-fan" so I don't usually miss an opportunity to go to a show more or less in my backyard.

Photos after the Jump

The Battle of Hoth Playtest

As part of the convention circuit this year. Dan and I are running a big 10mm Battle of Hoth scenario at FlintCon in February. This evening the normal group and I set up what is basically the first playtest game. After some deliberation we settled on trying out Future War Commander for the rules. 

Originally we were going to use Horizon Wars as a bit of an homage to an earlier episode in which we reviewed the rules but the more I thought about what I wanted from the game, the more we looked for something a little more streamlined.

I've rated the troops pretty much as such for the first game and like all my bright ideas, what is present on paper is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the ideas I have up top.

Storm Troopers
MV 10 ATTACKS 3/30 ASSAULT 3 HITS 4 SAVE 5
At-st
MV 15 ATTACKS 4/60 ASSAULT 4 HITS 4 SAVE 4
At-at
MV 10 ATTACKS 6/60 ASSAULT 4 HITS XX SAVE 3
Rebels
MV 10 ATTACKS 3/30 ASSAULT 3 HITS 4L SAVE 6 COST 20
Snow Speeders
MV 10/20 ATTACKS 4/30 ASSAULT 3 HITS 4 SAVE5/6 SEE NOTE
ATTACH TOW 4+ DROP SAVE TO 5 AND MOVE TO 10
Turrets
MV - ATTACKS 4/60 ASSAULT - HITS 5 SAVE 5

This was more or less my blind guess at what would work. The Rules state that troops in the open are hit on a 4 and troops in trenches on a 6 so my logic is "rebels will be hard to his but easy to kill. Stormtroopers will be hard to kill but easy to hit" We'll see how it pans out in subsequent tests. On to the Scenario

Rebels (Deployed in the Trench Lines)
XX x Stands of Infantry
5 x Gun Turrets
4 x Snow Speeders (Recyclable)(Start in Echo Base)

Empire (Deployed on the board edge)
15 x Stands of Infantry
4 x At-St
3 x AT-AT

And some eye candy from the Playtest game

Some thoughts. Most of the numbers worked really well, especially considering my lack of experience with the rules.The Snowspeeders however basically need an entire rewrite and after a lot of debate we decided to basically come up with a new system for them that would make it a little easier to attach but a little harder to kill. I think we'll be testing it once or twice more before the show but in general, it's almost there. Ill need to print the turrets and do a little more basing but otherwise I think we're just about ready. I have a page full of notes to tweak some stuff but its nothing major. We are on track for Flintcon